a. Field of Invention
The invention relates generally to vehicle structural design for providing corrosion resistance, and more particularly, to a vehicle body side weather strip flange for providing corrosion resistance.
b. Description of Related Art
As is known in the art, a variety of materials and techniques are used for minimizing or eliminating corrosion in vehicles. To be acceptable, such techniques must generally protect a vehicle for at least 10 years of service. In modern vehicles, exemplary corrosion protection techniques include the use of materials such as aluminum or composites in areas susceptible to water contact. If such materials cannot be used due to cost or performance constraints, the vehicle steel body may be coated with phosphate and e-coat. However, for such a coating to be effective, the phosphate and e-coat must properly penetrate and coat all areas that may be exposed to water during vehicle use. Such penetration and coating can be extremely difficult to achieve in vehicles that include numerous areas that can be susceptible to water contact, and further, the design of many vehicle features based on performance, safety and ergonomics can further make the requirement of such features to be corrosion resistant a difficult task.
Corrosion resistance is often of primary concern in areas that are directly exposed to the elements and are further visible during ordinary use. One such area includes the area between the vehicle driver/passenger entrance and exit, and the sealing perimeter of the vehicle doors. As shown in FIGS. 1-4, the area 10 between a vehicle driver/passenger entrance and exit 12 and sealing perimeter 14 of vehicle door 16 generally includes a weather strip 18 attached to perimeter 14. Perimeter 14 generally includes a flange 20 onto which weather strip 18 is attached by means of adhesive or other known methods.
During normal use, water and other contaminants can become trapped in the area of the weather strip, and especially in any gaps present between the weather strip and the flange, and the flange and the vehicle body, and result in build-up of red rust 22 (see FIGS. 1-4). Current solutions for eliminating rust in vehicles in the gaps between the flange and the vehicle body are relatively expensive. One such solution includes spraying phosphate and e-coat in the areas of the gaps between the flanges and the vehicle body. Referring to FIG. 5, another such solution includes the installation of sealer beads 24 onto flange 20 for prevention of water intrusion into the weather strip flange area. As is known in the industry, this latter solution is relatively expensive due to the requirement of additional heads for installation of sealer beads, from a design, manufacturing and maintenance viewpoint.
Other structures and techniques have been proposed for mounting weather strips and for sealing automobile structures from water and other contaminants. For example, referring to FIGS. 1-4 of U.S. Pat. No. 7,083,222 to Oda, there is disclosed a structure for mounting weather strip (2) to door panel (1A) or body panel (1B) of an automobile, including holes (1b) and engagement member (8) for retention of weather strip (2). Although Oda discloses a structure for mounting weather stripping, the Oda structure however does not address potential corrosion due to water penetration between the structure itself and the vehicle body.
It is therefore desirable to provide an automobile structure and weather strip flange design which is simple and economical to implement, and which provides corrosion resistance for at least up to ten years of normal vehicle use. It is also desirable to provide an automobile structure and weather strip flange design which may be implemented without requiring significant modification of existing automobile design and assembly procedures.